The fierce forest fire broke out yesterday on the Currumahuida hill, belonging to the province of Chubut, and affected a house and caused the evacuation of 58 people in the populated area, after the orange alert was declared. For prevention, the igneous emergency was declared through Resolution 128/23, which requests the population not to circulate “if it is not necessary”, not to congest the roads and to respect the indications of Civil Defense personnel.
The focus of the fire is in the area of the vineyards and in the vicinity of Labyrinth of El Hoyo. Due to the dryness of the terrain, the flames quickly climbed the mountainside, which caused the column of smoke to be seen from neighboring towns, such as El Bolsón.
President Alberto Fernandez communicated today with the mayor of the Chubut town of El Hoyo, Pol Huismán, to express their support for the fire that has been affecting the Currumahuida hill since yesterday, the local authorities reported today. “Whatever you need, count on me,” Fernández assured the Chubut mayor, who specified that at the moment the loss of a house in the area of the willowit was reported from the official page of the commune.
The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, through the National Fire Management Service (SNMF), confirmed that two hydrant planes, an amphibian and a helicopter with a helibalde, are operational, which will be accompanied during the day by the work of the Boeing Chinook helicopter -with a draft capacity of 10,000 liters of water-, which was transferred to the Esquel base for this purpose.
During yesterday’s day, resources were devoted to controlling the fronts in the El Sauzal area “so that the fire does not reach the homes,” according to the El Hoyo Municipal Emergency Committee.
“We are taking care of and defending the populated areas. Until today at dawn we were touring the area of the vineyards, the area of El Sauzal and everything that could become a threat to the urban area,” said the mayor of El Hoyo, Pol Huismán.
After the meeting with the Emergency Committee, Huisman thanked the fire crews that were working in the area and protecting each of the homes. “Until now, none have burned down precisely because of this work,” Huisman said.
In the affected areas, a total of 135 brigade members of the Provincial Fire Management Service from the bases of Golondrinas, Epuyén, Lago Puelo, El Maitén, Puerto Patriada, Cholila and the National Brigade are fighting the fire, with the support of the National Highway Administration , Police Station and Volunteer Firefighters of El Hoyo and Epuyén. In addition, 45 forest fighters from the South National Brigade and National Parks provide support in the jurisdiction.
They also collaborate by assisting the population, personnel from the local Traffic and Civil Protection Department, the Security Secretariat, the Chubut Civil Protection and Risk Management Secretariat, the Road Safety Agency and the National Road Safety Directorate.
Regarding how the operation will continue, the mayor specified that during the meeting the work of the day was planned and remarked that “Today what is good about it, from the meteorological point of view, is that there is no wind forecast. What is more problematic is that the temperature continues to rise, but since there is no wind for the operation it is much more advantageous.”.
For her part, the head of Civil Defense of El Hoyo, Luciana Cardenassaid that “the actions for today are to continue focused on the part where we are most at risk and we have an orange alert in the El Sauzal sector, which is a neighborhood close to the fire.”
Meanwhile, 58 people remain evacuated at School 223, with the assistance of the Social Development Secretariat, after the orange alert was declared, which implies preparation for evacuation and preventive evacuation for the El Sauzal area, while Valle del Pirque remains under yellow alert.
“Yesterday the El Sauzal neighborhood was recommended to evacuate children and the elderly because there was a lot of smoke in that sector. For today the same is still recommended because there is still a lot of smoke in the place, so School 223 is available,” he said. Cardenas.
In turn, Civil Defense prohibited navigation and any other nautical activity in Puerto Patriada and El Desembarque until further notice at the request of the security forces that are fighting the fire.
Meanwhile, in Chubut the igneous sources of El Pedregoso (Las Pataguas) and Los Cipreses (La Rinconada) were contained, reported the SNMF.
